If one choice could change the world
by Queen Cassie Loves You
Summary: A small child is given a fresh start ... a new family in a terrifying world ... but when she gets old enough to know the sacrifice her parents made she will set out to change the past and therefore the future. If a butterfly beating its wings can change history, how much more so a young woman with a wand and a desire for justice.


Author: I know it is very long for a prologue. But I want to make sure you knew everything.

The two figures hovered on the road side, one kneeling and one lying down, in the shadows of a tree. Briefly the moonlit hit the bodies, so they were suddenly completely obvious before the shadows covered them once more; revealing the kneeling figure as a little girl of no more than two or three, the body lying beside her being that of her father, a youngish man.

"Papa?" Rosalie quietly asked.

"Give me a moment, sweetheart" Sirius tiredly replied.

He managed to get to his feet just about, holding his stomach with one hand, red stains around the part where his hand was. Though the wound was healed, the stains and the pain remained. Reaching out his free hand he took his daughter's and held it tightly. "Alright beautiful, let us get going" he whispered to his daughter as he set off down the ditch, along the side of the road, at a slow and rather unsteady pace "It is going to take a little longer than expected darling. But I am going to get you somewhere safe. You hear me angel, it is all going to be okay."

Rosalie nodded as she kept up with dad the best she could. She was silent; too busy looking at the ground with intensity as she judged each footstep. She could not have replied anyway because she did not understand what her dad meant – why was there old home not safe anymore, why did they have to go somewhere new? When she stumbled over yet another rock she finally asked "can we walk on the road daddy?"

"It is too easy to be spotted from there, we need to keep in the shadows" Sirius replied shaking his head, moving further against the hedge that lined the ditch, tugging Rosalie with him.

Every now and then Sirius paused to rub away their old footprints with a branch. A pointless and time consuming exercise but it made him feel better that he was doing something. In the current climate of fear he spent most of his time feeling helpless. The least he could do was control getting his daughter to a place where you would not have to be afraid. He could not make the world a better place but he could make her world a better one.

"Daddy we are going too fast … you're bleeding again … my feet hurt . . ." Rosalie spoke through short sharp breaths as she looked up at him for a moment before returning to watching her feet.

As she made that statement they were approaching a house through the darkness, a mismatched and jumbled house which looked like it should not be able to stand upright but somehow was. Sirius let out a relieved breath as they travelled the last bit. Coming up to the cracked wooden door and lightly knocking on it surface, having released his daughter's hand, and waiting for someone to open up. Rosalie held her daddy's cloak with one hand and waited too.

The door swung open eventually, after someone from inside had whispered a question in a hissed tone and Sirius had answered in the same barely audible voice, and they were allowed inside, to stand in the hallway and have the door slammed instantly behind them. Rosalie looked around the hallway with wide open eyes and filled with curiosity. She then turned to look at the people who had let them in, though she did not know who they were, silent as she waited for someone else to speak.

Molly Weasley led Sirius and Rosalie through to the kitchen, where the family was apparently in the middle of dinner. Six young faces looked up from their dinner plates to see who had intruded on their evening. Molly had yet to say anything as she seemed at a loss for words. Though the question as to why they were here hung in the air between the two of them. Sirius felt he should answer, but he did not want to voice anything until she had. So instead he addressed the children in a hollow attempt at re-assuring cheerfulness.

"Well boys, are you enjoying your dinner?"

As they grew use to having a rather rough looking stranger in their midst the boys seem to relax. They stopped staring and returned to eating their food.

"We have pasta" seven year old Charlie commented waving his fork at Sirius.

"I like fish" Bill randomly added as he stole a piece of paste from Charlie's plate while the other boy was distracted.

"We like chocolate" Fred and George declared in unison, being perfectly in tune even at age three "but mummy …"

"… says no chocolate before dinner" little Percy finished firmly with a nod.

"Boys eat up, it is almost bed time" Molly interrupted as she sat down next to Ron once more and finished feeding him his pasta "I am sure that Sirius has some important things to discuss with Daddy."

Arthur was seated at the end of the table reading a newspaper, though he had folded that up when Sirius had arrived, and he nodded agreement to his wife's comment, smiling at the boys. They obeyed and quickly finished their plates. Then one by one kissed their parents goodnight and headed off to bed. Molly picked baby Ron up and took little Rosalie's hand, taking them off after the others. Leaving Arthur and Sirius alone.

"So want to share why you're here?" Arthur tiredly asked as he surveyed the other man "it is not often we get visitors, not how things are at the moment."

Sirius moved so he was sitting near to Arthur. He wanted to keep his voice down and prevent his daughter from overhearing, from wherever she had been taken. "I have something important I need to ask you. I know that you do not exactly owe me any favours. But I have no-one else to turn to. Not with Lilly and James … well I need your help."

"I see, this favour involves your daughter I assume, hence why you have bought her here?"

Sirius considered his next sentence carefully, knowing he had to phrase it just right. Before he responded "yes it is … it is about Rosalie … I need" Sirius had practised what he wanted to say the whole journey here, and yet now words failed him. The very idea of giving his daughter away combined with the fact he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had too left him looking completely helpless, pained, and unable to say a word about it. He looked back and forth between Arthur and his hands as he struggled. As though something could offer itself as a solution, and put an end to his misery "I need her to be safe. Somewhere she could be bought up safe. I have got wind that you-know-who will becoming after me soon. Where else would be safer for her than with other children, with members of the order, with you?"

"— You are asking us to adopt Rosalie?" Arthur clarified slowly.

"Yes" Sirius simply replied.

Sirius had leaned forward towards Arthur as he spoke "I need you to adopt her, I am begging you to" Sirius trailed off and letting in a deep breath continued "I know you have a lot of children already but I really do need this from you - please."

Arthur was looking thoughtful "we are talking about just until the world is free and safe once more, right? Or are you asking us to permanently take your daughter. Because that is a choice I am sure that you would come to regret later."

"The world might never be safe, it is hard to see a future in this, but somehow I know I will come back for her one day" Sirius replied with a nod, short and sharp.

"Then I am sure we can do as you ask, but I will have to talk to Molly" Arthur replied unwilling to commit "It is her that will be taking on the responsibility of another child. Therefore it is her who must make the choice as to whether we can"

"What must I make a choice about?" Molly asked, having just quietly entered the room and come up behind the two men. Her warm face was creased with worry. But she tried to make her tone sound re-assuring "I am sure that whatever it is, we can help."

"Sirius is making a big request of us" Arthur began to carefully explain, "he wants us to— wait he needs us to, make Rosalie one of our own. He is hoping we can keep her safe where he cannot."

Molly sat down beside her husband and paused, unsure how to reply for a moment, and then responded "would this be permanently our just for a little while?"

"Just until he can offer her a proper home," Arthur replied after glancing at Sirius "do you think that maybe we can manage one more, amongst the boys. I know it is a lot to ask of you darling, but I am sure he would not be asking if we were not his only hope, his best option. I have questioned him on it and he is determined he has thought it through."

"What have you told her?" Molly asked as the idea just came into her head, glancing up towards the bedrooms "what did you tell her about why you were coming here?"

Sirius thought back to the conversation he had earlier with his daughter "just that I was taking her somewhere she could be safe. She is too young to really understand and I did not want to upset her. But I promised her we would go to a place where she could be safe." Sirius paused to swipe at his eyes with one hand, catching the momentary tears before they truly begun, and stopping them in their tracks.

"She does not know you won't be staying?" Arthur pushed him further as he thought about the child "How will we explain to her that you are gone? That from now on she has to live in a strange house with unknown people? Is this really the best and only way you can think of?"

"We will do it—I know it will be hard—but we will do it because we cannot turn her away. She needs someone right now and I have enough motherly affection for hundreds of children. We will take her in and make her part of the family, but Sirius if you aren't planning on returning for her then tell us now ..."

"I promise faithfully that I will come for her when I can give her a proper home" Sirius replied "I am not abandoning her; I swear I am not, and I will come back for her. But it may be a long time before I am in the position where I can be there for her."

"Well then you better call her down and say goodbye" Molly began before changing tack midway through her sentence "No, wait it will be better if you spend the night here on the sofa and then say goodbye in the morning. It is only evening but travelling in this kind of darkness is not advised – you must stay."

"I do not want to put you in danger" Sirius wavered though he was tempted "by hanging around any longer than is essential, I really should get going by now."

"You cannot go without saying goodbye" Molly corrected instantly "and little Rosalie was fast asleep when I checked on her just now. Do you really want to wake her up?"

Again, it seemed that Molly had won her argument because Sirius gave in "I guess it would not hurt to stay just one night. Leave early in the morning tomorrow. I won't be able to hang around long come morning. But thank you so much for what you are doing for me."

Molly and Arthur just watched Sirius nodding in response, neither moved as though they were expecting him to go on. But he just kept the silence going as he ran out of steam and words. Giving up on the idea of trying to say how he felt. So instead Molly got him settled on the sofa and left him to sleep, returning to her husband in the kitchen, where he had not moved from his chair.

"The children are going to need an explanation, and I do not think that accept it just because mummy says so is going to cut it this time, they are going to need more than that. What are we going to tell them? I do not want to scare them by saying that she needs protecting. I must also do not want them to think there are parents out there who cannot look after their children."

At that moment, the sound of a baby crying from upstairs drifted down the stairs. Molly shook her head, with a small smile, and headed off up to deal with her son. Just as she returned to the kitchen there was the sound of footsteps and then little Rosalie entered the kitchen dragging the teddy bear Charlie had let her borrow.

"Where is daddy?" said Rosalie asked in a hushed tone as she sleepily looked around "I woke up – and he needs to sing me my sleepy byes song."

"Rosalie? Rosalie?" a voice called from the stairs and little Charlie ran into the room, breathing fast as he clearly ran all the way down the stairs, stopping by Rosalie and reaching his hand to take hers. "I lost you, I thought you were … well you just vanished … I thought that something had happened to you."

"Rosalie is fine, go back to bed Charlie" Molly softly told him, pleased by just how sweet it was that he cared about a girl he had literally just met "Rosalie is going to stay down her with mummy for a bit, she will be up to go to sleep again soon."

Charlie unhappily nodded, and then turning headed off up the stairs and back towards his bedroom.

"Daddy?" Rosalie asked again "can he do my sleepy bye song yet?"

Molly lifted Rosalie up into her arms. She gently stroked her hair and gave her a cuddle before she spoke. Framing her words very carefully "Daddy has gone to sleep himself now. He must have been tired too, can I do your sleepy byes song?"

"Do you know what the words are?"

"Well you can teach me, how's that?"

Rosalie looked up at Molly. She considered the idea and seemed to like it, leaning against Molly and yawning sleepily, wrapping a strand of her long reddish blonde hair around one finger, before mumbling "it is all about keeping me safe even when I dream." That was about as much as Molly was getting from the tired child, but as she was practically asleep again anyway, it did not matter much.

"Does it have a special tune?"

"la la la la la la" murmured Rosalie unhelpful.

"Well you hop into bed, and then I will sing."

"Okay … Miss Lady."

"Good girl" Molly replied as she put her down. She followed Rosalie into Charlie's room, the only bedroom with spare room enough. Checking that Charlie was asleep still, she got Rosalie settled into the make shift bed they had created and tucked her in. Giving her a kiss on the forehead she whispered "now get a good nights sleep hunny, its going to be a long day tomorrow."

When she hummed a mere bar of the lullaby she guessed sounded vaguely like the proper one she noted the small girl was asleep. Moving across the room she kissed Charlie on the forehead as well. Before moving down the hallways visiting her other children, making sure that everyone was still asleep, and well. She reached the final room and found that the twins were sitting up in bed still, wide awake.

"Mummy, are we having any more visitors tonight? They are very loud and they keep us awake? We can't sleep" Fred asked while George nodded away in the background.

"No more visitors tonight darling – just those ones."

"Good night mummy . . . "

Two days later:

The young woman sat on a low wooden stool at one of the less well known bars, down Charity Street. She swished her drink around for a few moments before taking a deep sip and allowing the warm liquid to fill her. The stool beside her moved as someone took it out and sat down – but the woman ignored the movement. Either too focussed on her drink to notice or to absorbed in her thoughts to care. She took another deep swig of the drink and slammed down the glass.

"I have done it, and you know that it had to be done. Do you really blame me for doing what I thought was best for our daughter, what I knew was best for her?"

"Of course, I blame you" the woman softly whispered in reply without looking up "but we do what we have to do – if that helps you sleep at night."

Sirius sighed heavily and did not make another comment. He had known just how badly she would take his choice. But she also knew that she would have done the same thing had he not done it first. She was just taking it hard that she never got the chance to say goodbye. That he never told her what he was doing. That one day they were just gone.

"What if she does not want to come home" the woman asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question "what if she realizes that she likes the better life you have supposedly give her with that family – and we never get our little girl back." It was rare that she would actually allow herself to use the phrase 'our' or 'we' when in reference to the child. She did not think of her as theirs. It was her daughter – that had been taken away from her. So she saw it.

"At least she would be alive to make that choice" Sirius defended though he had considered the very same dilemma when he had been taking Rosalie to the Weasley's in the first place "I would rather have her alive and not with us than with us … and not."

The woman took a long drink and then slammed the glass down so hard it almost broke "how dare you! Who says that I could not have kept her alive? Do not put your own bad parenting onto me!"

"Being unable to keep your child safe, in a world ruled by a tyrannical and cruel dark wizard is hardly a bad parenting point."

She turned to actually look at him for the first time and retorted "it is hardly a good parenting point."

"What is done is now done. We cannot undo it. Therefore we are both going to have to just accept it and move on. Till we can return and bring her home."

There was silence from both as they just sat glaring at each other. It was clear that his argument did not convince himself let alone her. But he could not come up with a better one and besides she did not want to hear anymore anyway. She wanted to hate him for what he had done, and nothing was going to change that. So really they both knew there was no point in him trying.

"I want to forgive you – but I cant" the woman simply replied before adding "not when I see that Lilly and James have not felt the need to give up Harry. That they can keep him safe, and yet somehow we are not as good a family as them? What have they got that we have not got?"

"Is that what you wanted?" Sirius asked quietly with a shake of his head as he thought of the Potters "to have to go into hiding? To live constantly in fear never know when you might be discovered? To have the entire future of your children dependent on one person keeping your secret?"

The woman did not look like she wanted to respond to his comment – she had gone a rather sour colour and turned back to her glass. He could not work out what that meant, but he had a feeling that it meant the answer was no – she could not have done what the Potters had been forced to do.

"You would die rather than betray James" the woman finally carefully informed him "and he would do the same for you, so how would it be living in fear of betrayal and being found?"

"What happens if I did die for him? Then the secret is weakened? And for every person that dies for him so the secret is weakened" Sirius pointed out as he finally got around to ordering himself a drink.

"You know that is not how it works; you know that it is not an argument, so stop trying to feed me these fakes reasons!"

"I do not want to argue" Sirius tiredly informed her, changing tack before he said something he would regret "please, let us not argue."

"Just tell me you are sorry" the woman pleaded "just please tell me you are sorry for what you have done, and wish that you could change it, that you could undo it. . ."

Sirius was not sure how to respond, whether to tell her what she wanted to hear or what he truly felt. After all he had put her through he decided the least he could do was give her what she wanted to hear "I am sorry I did it, and I wish I could change having done it."

The woman smiled when he said that. It was a half hearted attempt at grateful pleasure which came out more as a grimace of pain than anything else. But the point was there – she was thankful to him for just giving that to her "then maybe I can forgive you …"

"We will make her a better world" Sirius quietly whispered as he leaned forward and gently kissed her.

"I know" the woman replied, returning the kiss with a somewhat urgent and sudden need for affection. Pulling him closer to her and feeling the tears drip down her cheeks even as she kissed him. She shoved her glass away with one when the kiss broke and rose from her stool.

"Where are you going to go? Are you going home?" Sirius asked when she stood up "I do not want you wondering around the streets by yourself … not at this time, not nowadays." He trailed off knowing that whatever he said would make no difference with her. He could only hope that she was planning on going home anyway, before he commented. "If you are going home, well just anyway, then I will come with you … it has been a long day and I am exausted."

The woman looked like she wanted to argue with him once more for the briefest pause, before she changed her mind "okay … finish your drink, and then let's go."

"Thank you" Sirius informed her, though it was said quietly enough that she could pretend not to hear if she wanted to. She did in fact pretend she had not heard him and just kept fiddling with her bag and waiting to leave. Her gaze followed the track of his glass every time he moved it at all. The impatience she was feeling to leave the place was emanating off her in waves and she was making no attempts to disguise it.

He finished his drink and pushing the glass away, paid as quickly as was possible. Before taking one of her pale shaking hands in his own larger one. Giving it a squeeze when he realized that to a certain extent she was actually still crying. Allowing himself to lean across and give her cheek a gentle and loving kiss.

"Let's go home."


End file.
